Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Tugging up my hoodie to cover my hair, I try to look like everyone else in the hospital. I’m not sure I pull it off, but I’m also not sure I have the energy to care.
The hours since what happened at Birdie’s has been some of the worst I’ve gone through. Finding out Raney was okay filled me with instant relief and definitely helped me get a grip. But now I’m struggling again.
By the time I got to cover, Simona and Heidi had already been rushed away. Even after the constant calls and texts from my girls, I’m stuck in a bad headspace because I have a desperate need to see King.
I know he is okay. I know he’s at the hospital watching over Joker as he battles to survive. And I don’t begrudge him for being who he is and what he’s doing but at the same time words are words, and I’m going out of my mind imagining the worst which is why I’m creeping through the hospital to try to catch a glimpse of him. If I can see or scent him or hear his voice, I know my anxiety will go. I’d be able to leave but until then I simply can’t.
My head is already fucked up, so it’s pretty much a no-brainer that my worry for King extends to our relationship too. But because I’m spiralling my thoughts naturally jump to what recently happened with Tyson and Maverick too. And then I’m questioning my ability to decipher fact from what I wanted to happen.
The likelihood of a panic attack intensifies as I continue struggling to trust myself.
Searching for a place less ‘public’ to fall apart, I lock my sight on a sign for the ladies’ bathroom. I fixate on counting the steps to it as a way of stalling before losing it completely. Racing through a busy visitors’ room with my eyes locked on the sign, I dodge chairs and people, rushing inside at the last moment.
The bathroom is empty, and I take the last stall, falling to my ass as soon as the door closes.
“Five things I see,” I say. I feel my lips move but don’t hear a sound. I say it again, and again until what I can see registers. “The loo. The light. A shoe. A row of tiles. And my broken fingernail.”
I lay my head back against the closed door and look at them again, study them until the whoosh in my ears abates.
“Four things I hear,” I say, searching for something to focus on. I know it’s not a good sign that the only thing I can hear is my heavy breathing. I search for something outside of myself, eventually a dripping faucet gives me another lifeline before my awareness spreads further to include someone talking over the PA system.
Slowly but surely the fear of being sucked into a bleak hole doesn’t become the only thing I think about. And while I’m feeling mildly better, I don’t stop going through the list in my mind.
“Three things to touch, but not the floor.” I grimace when I realise being stuck in the bathroom of a busy public hospital is going to have consequences. I skip the rest, moving to focusing on the power of smells.
“Please let it be bourbon,” I pray. But of course I don’t get even the smallest hint, instead it’s the stink of stress that is the first thing to register.
The toilet door opens, and I leap off the floor feeling better but still shaky. I just hope they didn’t see because I don’t need questions or pity, I think it would have me spiralling again. Flushing the loo I didn’t use, I keep my head down low as I step out of the stall, walking into the other person.
“So sorry,” I mumble, not looking at them, I’m still feeling out of whack.
But they make it impossible for me to ignore.
“Go home.” She snarls and it comes from nowhere. My eyes jump to hers and my stomach plummets to my feet when I see she’s wearing a Fallen t-shirt, her black jeans so tight they look painted on her sexy curves. She’d be half pretty if she wasn’t full of poison—it pulls her lips together, making her mouth look like a cat’s butthole.
She knocks my shoulder with hers to use the tap in front of me in an overly intimidating move. “You’re pathetic and definitely not welcome here.”
“Pardon? Do I know you?”
“You miss the part where I said you weren’t welcome?”
I shuffle back against the door, trying to not piss her off because I don’t trust the look in her eye. “Okay, but I still don’t know who you are.”
“Yet I know who you are. King told me this morning he didn’t want to see anyone. I thought it was weird but now I guess what he was trying to say to me is he didn’t want to see you. Fuck off to where you crawled from because newsflash, if he doesn’t want you here, no one else will.”
Instead of leaving, she takes a step closer and gets up in my face, so close I can smell the cheap perfume she wears. Then the nasty bitch shoves me out the way, and I spin so fast and unexpectedly I nearly crash to my ass. Her laughter rings in my ears long after she’s gone.
And for a few moments I can’t do anything but stare after her while I waver between bursting out laughing or breaking down in tears, because what the actual fuck?
My phone buzzes in my tracksuit pants drawing me out of my funk. The instant I read the message I’ve been desperately yearning for, all the bullshit and angst that’s been consuming every part of me calms.
Killer, first time I’m out of ICU. I’m getting some fresh air. I need to hear your voice.
I race out of the bathroom, desperate for more of the balance King brings, nearly smacking into Big Tom who’s lingering protectively down the hallway.
“King’s in the carpark,” he says, barely moving his lips.
“I know!” I laugh, tearing past him and he rolls his eyes before breaking into a jog to follow. And because I’m sometimes the world’s most impatient person, I nearly break the fire exit door in my haste, but I am not wasting precious time. My feet fly down the stairs but not as fast as my heart races.
But then I’m down in the carpark, and all I can smell is bourbon. King’s scent is saturated in the air. I could close my eyes and find him. I dash through cars and around people walking and leap at him. As desperate as I am, he is the same though and he nabs me out of the air, squeezing the absolute bejesus out of me. Before we’re hiding in the dark corner, his mouth is on mine.
With each lick of his tongue, I whimper against his lips, so fucking thankful for this time with him.
“I needed to hear your voice. But this is fucking a million times better, killer,” he growls his words when he pulls back slightly, his eyes are bright as always, but you can see how tired he is. Except, I can also read that he’s been making plans. My heart breaks out into a gallop the more I search for answers, and he pushes me up against the wall so he can drop his palm over it.
“You can hear me having a heart attack?” I ask, obviously impressed.
He leans in to kiss me quickly, his hand getting squashed against us in the process. And while it wasn’t sexual initially, it is King. He palms my tit, twisting my nipple, and he watches me closely, knowing exactly what he’s doing to my body.
“I’ve told the boys the second Joker gets the all clear, I’m taking a vacation.” He smirks, knowing I’m having trouble registering what he’s saying as he keeps playing.
“Say again,” I moan, wiggling in his arms.
He stills, his eyes glaring at me. “I said…”
“No, I’m sure you said let me put my fat cock in you and fuck you real quick…” I quip, and he throws his head back. His laughter echoing around us.
“Fuck, Tris, you are going to be the death of me, huh? Take a walk, Big Tom, and give us a heads up if we got people heading our way,” King calls out.
Holding me with one hand, he manages the unbelievable before I feel the nudge of his hard cock at the entrance of my bare pussy. Dropping his forehead to mine, King pushes himself deep inside in one slow move. The whimper I made before is nothing like the sounds I make now as I struggle to take him in.
“This slit is always so tight for me,” he murmurs, a dirty smile spreading over his lips. Intentionally, he blows his yummy scent my way, using the power of scent to make me open up.
He keeps moving his hips in short punchy moves as he pushes inside, my pussy stretching around his thickness. I get a growl of appreciation when he feels my submission and sinks all the way in. Purposely, because he knows how much I love it, he hits the top of my cervix when he’s in the deepest. The shock of pain adds to the growing and tumbling waves of pleasure already ruining me. God, this Alpha treats me good. He pushes against my forehead to get my attention again and I blink back to reality, catching the warning in his eyes.
“Yes,” I manage before he rams his knot home; his brown eyes blaze black as my pussy clamps down, already trying to milk his cock. I go off like fireworks when I feel him coming.
King drops his mouth to my throat, leaving a track of harsh bites until he trails the rest of the way to my ear with his tongue. “No more waiting, Tris. I’m taking you away and claiming you properly.”
His words are like ecstasy, and I wrap my legs around his waist and grind my way through the tingling aftermath of our love.
I’m legitimately off with the fairies, floating in an orgasm coma, but when King stills, I get pulled out of my bliss and back to the real world.
“Huh?” I ask.
Laughing, he leans in for a super quick kiss before pulling out. I want to whine at the loss but the look he gives me has me swallowing any noise. He grabs my hand and bobs down low, racing me behind a SUV just in time for a pack with small kids to walk past.
“I never knew you’d be…”
“What?” He growls. “I couldn’t give a shit if people saw us fucking, Tris. Well, that ain’t true, the mood I’m in I’d rip their fucking eyes from their face so they don’t ever get to see my Omega before pouring diesel down their nose so no one scents you.”
“Good God, you’re a menace to society.” I squeeze his hand in reassurance.
“You got no fucking idea, killer.”
“What happened?” I ask and he knows I’m referring to the huge shift in his thinking.
“I’m not going to watch you run from me unless you’ve got my claim on your body for the fucking world to see.”
I stand up suddenly, blowing our cover. But I heard what he said and now I need to hear it properly, because… what the fuck??!! “What the hell did you just say?”
He stands up too, getting all in my face and towering above me. “You fucking heard. Now go get your endless suitcases ready, grab whatever you need to go away, but you and I are out for at least a week. Pack some nice shit too, killer, ’cause it looks like we’re going to see my kid and her pack on the way home and tell her the news.”
I have to let go of his hand, and I kind of fold in half, resting my hands on my knees as I try not to hyperventilate or scream the carpark down. Both are on the cards. Seriously, both are on the cards.
Except then I remember something, and I stand up so quick, I whack my head under his chin, earning another growl before he wraps his arms around me to stop my wild freak out.
“Settle the fuck down,” he barks. Not a bark, bark, because the tone he uses sends pleasure straight back to my pussy, it’s more of a ‘I fucking love you, you crazy woman but calm down’ bark.
I hang in his arms, my feet dangling, and I’ve never felt more secure. I go lax like I’ve taken a tranquilliser, and it feeds the hunger in his eyes.
“Promise you’ll carry me like this forever?” I smile up at him.
Shaking his head, he lowers me until my feet touch the ground again, but he tucks me under his shoulder and walks me to my car. “You want to try again?”
“Oh yeah. Sort of… not really.”
“Like that?”
“Yeah, you’re not going to like it. You will be pissed off,” I admit, burying my hand under his cut and past his t-shirt until I can stick it in the top of his jeans. When he doesn’t comment I keep going. “Did you tell any of the lovely, sweet ladies at The Fallen about me?”
“You know I haven’t, why?”
“I may have been having a panic attack before, and I went to the loo to pull myself together, and I wasn’t going to push my way in to see you or do anything to embarrass you but I never got the chance because some woman told me you said no visitors, including me. Although it was mostly me, apparently.”
King pulls to a stop, his mood dropping to near Alpha rage in a split second. And when he tips his head to one side, he’s not being sassy, he’s ready to kill someone. “What?”
Wrapping my hands around his face, I dump us in a cloud of scent, trying to soothe his beast. “Everyone at the hospital is stressed. Don’t worry about it. Once Joker is better, I’ll try to figure out if I remember what she looked like, but seriously maybe she thought I was someone else.”
“Not happy with what you’re saying, Tris.” He pulls his face out of my hands at the same time his phone goes off.
Digging it out of a pocket, he reads the message quickly before reading it out to me. “Doctor will be back, wants to talk to you.”
I lean up, giving him a kiss. “Go, do your thing. I’m fine. Plus, you know, I’ve got a shit tonne to do if you’re making me yours.”
“Like fucking what?” he barks.
“Wax my booty hole,” I’m going for humour because I’m funny as hell, and I also adore his smile.
It works. King leans down, kissing me until I have to push him away, or risk fainting. He looks half guilty when he speaks, “Not sure how long I’ll be.”
“I know. Want me to grab you anything? Actually, don’t worry about it. I got you.”
“Tristan,” he warns, “Don’t you dress me up like a fucking clown.”
“I was thinking nothing but tight grey sweatpants and a black Henley. I want to make you breakfast while you’re wearing nothing but sweatpants. Actually, we probably won’t eat, I’ll be staring at that cock of yours hanging down the side of your thick thighs. It’s one of my ultimate fantasies.” I fan my face because I’m already kind of getting off on seeing him exactly like that.
He laughs, leaning back down for another kiss, not as long this time but it’s a scorcher.